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Arkin Mahmud
| place_of_birth = Ghulja, China | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 103 | group = | alias = | charge = No charge (unlawfully detained) | penalty = | status = Transferred to Switzerland | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = two }} Arkin Mahmud is an Uyghur refugee best known for the seven and a half years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 103. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports Mahmud was born on July 1, 1964, in Ghulja, China. Arkin traveled to Afghanistan in order to look for his younger brother Bahtiyar Mahnut. He is one of approximately twenty-two captives from the Uighur ethnic group. By the summer of 2009 Arkin's mental health had deteriorated so profoundly he wasn't offered sanctuary in Palau. For some time in 2005 during his stay in Guantanamo he was held in solitary confinement. He won his habeas corpus in 2008. Judge Ricardo Urbina declared his detention as unlawful and ordered to set him free in the United States. Until his transfer to Switzerland on March 23, 2010 Arkin Mahmud had been held at Guantanamo for more than seven and a half years despite it became clear early on that he like the other Uyghurs in Guantanamo was innocent. Combatant Status Review Tribunal s were usually held in a trailer.]] Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant. Summary of Evidence memo A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Arkin Mahmud's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 9 November 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him: the most militant groups and has ties to al Qaida. :#The detainee fled from Kabul to Konduz, Afghanistan when the U.S. bombing campaign started. :#The detainee was captured by the Northern Alliance in Mazar-E-Sharif . :#The detainee was present during the Mazar-E-Sharif prison uprising. }} Testimony Mahmud chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. | title=Summarized Statement | date=date redacted | pages=pages 22–24 | author=OARDEC | publisher=United States Department of Defense | accessdate=2008-03-28 }} On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a three page summarized transcripts from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Arkina Amahmud v. George W. Bush A writ of habeas corpus, Arkina Amahmud v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Arkina Amahmud's behalf. In response, on 20 September 2005 the Department of Defense released 22 pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Summary of Evidence memo A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Arkin Mahmud's Administrative Review Board, on 30 November 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. The following factors favor continued detention , and all the occupants were imprisoned. :c Other Relevant Data :#The detainee witnessed the Qual Jangi uprising . }} The following primary factors favor release or transfer Transcript Mahmud chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing. | title=Summary of Administrative Review Board Proceedings of ISN 103 | date=date redacted | author=OARDEC | pages=pages 123–133 | publisher=United States Department of Defense | accessdate=2007-12-18 }} Opening statement Usually captives are invited to respond to each factor, one at a time, as they are read aloud. Arkin was invited to respond to the factors, once they had been all read out. Arkin responded that he had told his story so many time. What he really wanted was to learn why he had been thrown in with all these terrorists. His Board's Presiding Officer said that that was not the purpose of the Board. Board recommendations In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official. The Board's recommendation was unanimous The Board's recommendation was redacted. The Board concluded that captive 103 continued to be a threat to the USA. England authorized his transfer on January 11, 2006. Mental health In July 2009 the Pacific Ocean country of Palau offered sanctuary to all the remaining Uyghur captives in Guantanamo, except Arkin. Arkin's younger brother Bahtiyar declined the invitation of sanctuary in Palau in order to stay with Arkin. Due to reports from camp guards that Arkin had broken the camp's rules from 2005 he was held in isolation from other captives. Arkin told Elizabeth Gibson, his habeas counself, "I know I'll die in here. In China, at least I would have a trial and sentence." Granted asylum in Switzerland Switzerland granted political asylum to Arkin Mahmud and Bahtiyar Mahnut on February 4, 2010. mirror mirror mirror mirror Swiss authorities helped them settle in Canton of Jura. Historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files commented that Switzerland's grant of Asylum preserved the Obama Presidency from political embarrassment, because all the Uyghurs had been offered a new home, except for Arkin Mahmud, and that the swiss offer of asylum would complicate the habeas petitions of the four remaining Uyghur captives who had declined to agree to accept refugee status in Palau. References External links *From Guantánamo to the United States: The Story of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs Andy Worthington October 9, 2008 *Judge Ricardo Urbina’s unclassified opinion (redacted version) *MOTIONS/STATUS HEARING - UIGHURS CASES BEFORE THE HONORABLE RICARDO M. URBINA * Taking On Guantánamo Connecticut Law Tribune, May 10, 2010 * Human Rights First; Habeas Works: Federal Courts’ Proven Capacity to Handle Guantánamo Cases (2010) Category:Chinese extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:Uyghurs Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released